Jamaica Ship Registry Appoints Deputy Registrar for USA and Shanghai

The Jamaica Ship Registry (JSR) has expanded its international network of representatives, with the appointment of Calvin W. Cheng, chairman of Eastmark (Shipping) Associates, as deputy registrar for the United States and Shanghai.
Dr. Basil K. Bryan, Consul General to New York, witnessed the signing ceremony, which was held recently at the Consulate.
The JSR already has deputy registrars in Greece, Germany, Finland, Holland, Malta, Monaco and Singapore. Their responsibilities include, among other things, promoting the registry in their locations, acting on behalf of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ), and providing relevant feedback on JSR vessels doing business in their locations.
Director General of the MAJ, Rear Admiral Peter Brady, explained that by appointing deputy registrars, the MAJ was looking to “like minded companies and individuals” to spread the word of the registry’s quality around the world. He said that the JSR was aware of the important role that the deputy registrars played in getting the word out to the ship-owning and ship management communities.
“We have been working hard to shore up our global deputy registrar network by spreading the net further to include the essential US and Asian markets, something we have now achieved through the appointment of our new deputy registrar for these areas,” he stated.
Mr. Brady noted that in the six years since the JSR has been in operation, the agency has built up a reputation for meeting and exceeding the requirements of a demanding industry.
Meanwhile, he informed that the MAJ was positioning itself to take advantage of market potential in China and Greece, based on data from the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which identified these countries as having a combined 33 per cent share of total deadweight tonnage.
Mr. Cheng, a 1974 graduate from the Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences, formed Eastmark (Shipping) Associates, Inc in 1987 and has successfully placed in excess of US$300 million of ship financing and US$30 million of ship chartering for clients utilizing the services of the company.
Officially launched in 2000, the JSR allows ship owners worldwide to register their vessels under the Jamaican flag, where they benefit from incentives including 24-hour access to the country’s ports, prompt service and tax breaks as well as reasonable rates and quality service through its marine survey and technical support programme.
The registry is administered by the MAJ, a statutory arm of the government, whose operations are certified by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) to ISO 9001:2000 quality standards.